Director, Sansom Institute for Health Research, University of South Australia. Professor Ian Olver graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1976 and received a Doctor of Medicine in 1991 for a project on clinical trial methodology. He completed a PhD from Monash University in bioethics in 1997, exploring life and death issues and a Certificate of Ministry (Lay Preaching) at the Adelaide College of Divinity. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP)Chapter of Palliative Medicine (FAChPM) and is an Associate Fellow of the Royal Australian College of Medical Administrators (ARACMA).
He initially trained in medical oncology at Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, and the University of Maryland Cancer Centre in Baltimore. He worked for 6 years at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute where he jointly developed the oncology clinic at Bendigo Base Hospital and then moved to Adelaide becoming the Clinical Director, Royal Adelaide Hospital Cancer Centre and the first Cancer Council SA Professor of Cancer Care at the University of Adelaide. There he established the first oncology clinic in Alice Springs and developed a telemedicine link for multidisciplinary cancer care between Adelaide and Darwin. He also trained the first oncologist for the Christian Medical College Hospital Vellore, India.
From May 2006 to December 2014 he was appointed CEO, Cancer Council Australia, and a Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Sydney. In February 2015 Professor Olver took up the position of Director, Sansom Institute of Health Research and Professor of Translational Cancer Research at the University of South Australia.
He has published 245 journal articles, 22 book chapters and has written three books and edited three others. He chairs the Australian Health Ethics Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Medical Oncology Group of Australia Ethics Committee. He serves on the NHMRC Council, the Cancer Australia Advisory Board and the Clinical Oncological Society of Australia Board. He is President Elect of the Multinational Association for Supportive Care in Cancer and sits on the International Affairs Committee of American Society of Clinical Oncology.
In 2008 he was awarded the Cancer Achievement Award by the Medical Oncology Group of Australia and in 2014 the Gold Medal of Cancer Council Australia for distinguished service in cancer. He was awarded Membership of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2011 “For service to medical oncology as a clinician, researcher, administrator and mentor, and to the community through leadership roles with cancer control organisations."
